To coincide with the release of Paradise, we've taken a trawl through our archive for the best Q&As we've hosted on action against climate change.
With Paradise coming to Bertha DocHouse on Fri 26 May, we’re takin a look back at recent Q&As we’ve hosted on the same theme of climate change, and specifically those taking action against it.
Finite: The Climate of Change Panel Discussion
Recorded on Mon 13 Mar, 2023. With director Rich Felgate, Indigo Rumbelow and Asad Rehman. Hosted by Birkbeck University academic, Toby Litt.
In Finite: The Climate of Change, two groups of activists in different countries form an unexpected alliance in a raw and timely insider’s view of the world of direct action and climate activism.
A small community in North East England have spent decades fighting plans for a new coal mine next to their homes. Having exhausted all legal avenues to protect their valley, they feel they have no choice but to occupy the area to halt work commencing. Meanwhile in Germany, concerned citizens put their bodies on the line to save the ancient Hambach forest from one of Europe’s biggest coal mines.
Atomic Hope Q&A
Recorded on Wed 15 Feb, 2023. With director Frankie Fenton and Emma Smart from RePlanet UK. Hosted by journalist Carol Nahra.
In the face of a climate emergency and a global energy crisis, Atomic Hope follows a tiny international movement of unpopular pro-nuclear activists, who believe we need nuclear power in order to decarbonize our energy systems.
Intimately filmed over ten years, these advocates for nuclear energy come from all over the world, facing clashes and opposition at every juncture. These committed, pro-nuclear activists challenge the arguments, popular beliefs and myths around nuclear energy, basing their arguments in science and data. So, are they right?
The Oil Machine Q&A
Recorded on Wed 16 Nov 2022. With director Emma Davie and James Marriot, hosted by filmmaker Franny Armstrong.
Emma Davie’s timely and cinematic film explores our economic, historical and emotional entanglement with oil by looking at the conflicting imperatives around North Sea oil. Highlighting the complexities of how oil is embedded in our society – from high finance to cheap consumer goods – The Oil Machine brings together a wide range of voices from oil company executives, economists, young activists, pension fund managers and considers how this machine can be tamed, dismantled, or repurposed.
Essential and clear-sighted viewing, this urgent film brings the invisible machine at the core of our economy and society into focus, as the drama of global climate action plays out in the fight over North Sea oil.
The Territory Q&A
Filmed on Fri 22 Sep 2022. Filmmaker Alice Aedy hosted a special post-screening Q&A with director Alex Pritz, executive producer Txai Surui, as well as participants Neidinha Bandeira and Bitaté uru-eu-wau-wau.
In the Brazilian rainforest, a battle is being waged between the last of the indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe and the farmers who, with President Bolsonaro at their backs, are slowly eating into their otherwise protected territory. But young activist and leader Bitate is mobilising an army of self-taught journalists to patrol the jungle and catch the land grabbers in action, with a video camera as their only weapon against the chainsaws.
With awe-inspiring cinematography and richly textured sound design, The Territory takes audiences deep into the Uru-eu-wau-wau community and provides unprecedented access to the farmers and settlers illegally burning and clearing the protected Indigenous land.
More on The Territory.
Rebellion Q&A
Recorded on Mon 21 Mar 2022. Followed by a live Q&A with co-director Maia Kenworthy and Climate Lawyer Farhana Yamin who features in the film. Hosted by journalist Carol Nahra.
Extinction Rebellion’s public acts of civil disobedience have been unmissable – they were designed to be. They have also been controversial, provocative and faced mixed reactions.
Rebellion takes us behind the scenes of the group, from its launch in 2018, when a group of unlikely allies came together to confront the climate emergency. With unprecedented access to the core team, this frank film depicts the highs and lows of the movement as they crash into the status quo – and each other.